Politics Briefing: An apology for Mark Norman

The House of Commons unanimously passed a motion to apologize to Vice-Admiral Mark Norman and his family for what they endured over the course of a breach-of-trust case that collapsed last week.

A couple of key Liberals, however, weren’t there for the vote.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan were absent when Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt rose in the House after Question Period, shortly after 3 p.m., proposing a motion asking that the House “recognize Vice-Admiral Mark Norman for his decades of loyal service to Canada, express regret for the personal and professional hardships he endured as a result of his failed prosecution and apologize to him and his family for what they experienced during their legal conflict with government.”

Mr. Trudeau’s office said he had to fly to Hamilton, while Mr. Sajjan’s office said he left the House because he had “a previously scheduled engagement.”

The decision among Liberal MPs to support the motion to apologize marks a departure from the Prime Minister’s position. In Question Period Tuesday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pointedly asked Mr. Trudeau to apologize, and he declined.

Meanwhile Tuesday, RCMP investigators said they haven’t seen the new evidence that led to the stay of a breach-of-trust charge against the naval officer.

In an interview with the Canadian Press, two RCMP officers involved with the Norman probe emphasized the importance of independence in their work, even as opposition MPs continued to accuse the Trudeau government of orchestrating the investigation.

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

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Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is heading to Washington as talks over ending the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum intensify after months of deadlock.

China will only be more open to the world, President Xi Jinping said, as he denounced as “stupid” those who believe in cultural superiority, in his first public address since trade tension with the United States spiked last week.

Canada’s overseas development finance arm is joining forces with a U.S. government agency that is being set up to act as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a state-sponsored foreign-investment scheme by Beijing.

Ottawa plans to move quickly to impose a carbon tax on Albertans once Premier Jason Kenney kills the province’s own tax as part of his government’s wider attack on federal environmental policies.

Supreme Court Justice Clément Gascon, in his first public comments on his disappearance last week, says he suffered a panic attack owing to his “heart-rending” decision last month to retire this summer and after a change in medication for depression and anxiety.

Christine Van Geyn and Jasmine Pickel (The Globe and Mail) on Ontario’s campaign against the carbon tax: “Ontario is right to pursue this fight − just as Saskatchewan, Alberta, New Brunswick and Manitoba are right. But for how the government is spending taxpayer money on it, keep the wheat and cut the chaff.”

Richard Shimooka (National Post) on Canada’s fighter jets: “The provision of letters from the U.S. were the inevitable consequence of the government’s dysfunctional policy process: one that ignored all of the evidence presented to it in order to follow its partisan interests. Morale has cratered within the air force, and the public is paying for the government’s mismanagement of both their security and economy. Canadians deserve better than this. It must stop now.”

Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail) on the U.S.-China trade dispute: “Chalk up another foreign-policy flop. Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed deal-making wizardry has deserted him again, this time on a mega-trade pact with the world’s second-largest economy.”

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Andrei Sulzenko (The Globe and Mail) on the U.S.-China trade dispute: “As in the recently concluded NAFTA renegotiation, Mr. Trump will, however, spin marginal change as a major victory and hope voters will not know or care about reality.”

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